Ripples

It is June 3, 2020 and the George Floyd Protests are in full swing. Around 10,000 have been arrested and a few have been killed. The protests are now in every state and have gone international with protests in Europe. All of these protests first began with the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Office Derek Chauvin kneeled on the neck of George Floyd when he went to subdue him. Chauvin kept his knee on his neck for around 9 minutes which ended up killing Floyd. Floyd even said he couldn’t breathe and bystanders, which had gathered around him, wanted the officer off of him.

What did George Floyd do to warrant this? Sometime before 8:00 PM Floyd went to buy cigarettes at Cup Foods and used a $20 bill. The employee later realized that the $20 bill was a counterfeit and went to Floyd across the street whom was in a vehicle with two others. The employee wanted Floyd to return the cigarettes because of the fake $20 but Floyd refused. Floyd was also said to be drunk at the time. Officers soon arrived and apparently Floyd struggled with them and then it led to Floyd’s death by Chauvin’s use of the knee on his neck to subdue him.

George Floyd probably deserved to be arrested. He probably knew that was a fake $20 bill. He didn’t deserve to die in the process. We could be saying that he was arrested for using a $20 bill which implies that he would be alive. We can’t say that now because he died. It is also entirely possible that he had no idea the $20 bill was fake and did not need to be arrested. It is also possible that he just did not want to deal with the cops messing with him.

Video of the incident went viral quickly and caused a vigorous uproar. In response there were mass protests in Minneapolis which then gradually led to more protests throughout the United States. The protests were initially about the death of George Floyd but they evolved into a lack of accountability for police brutality and racism which never seem to go away. There always seems to be some kind of incident involving an African-American and a police officer. Floyd was lucky to have his incident on camera but not all African-Americans are so lucky when they encounter an officer. What further exacerbated the atmosphere was President Trump whom only views the protests and riots done by thugs and ANTIFA and has vowed to crush them with force. President Trump chooses not to engage with the protests in a civil manner and has chosen force which only further complicates the situation. President Trump’s lack of awareness combined with the accountability of police brutality and racism has made America reach a boiling point. Protests are needed when adequate change is necessary where that change has struggled to cement itself. Riots occur when that change is attempted over and over without results further adding to the boiling point we see today.

What is to be done? Accountability. We must hold accountability. In this day and age it is difficult to hold accountability especially when President Trump can easily get away with anything he wants. The mass protests and riots help to ensure that accountability is met. Officer Chauvin was actually charged with murder which shows that protesting works. Should they stop now? The protests must continue indefinitely until more accountability is met. Once accountability is met then it can lead to adequate change so that the George Floyd’s of America no longer have to die due to the common nature of American police brutality which has also hurt the good American police making it harder on them to do their jobs.